Hi! Wow has it been a long time since I have been on here! Hope everyone is doing well!

So our DD is doing great, growing like a weed, she will be 4 in a few weeks, but she still will not sleep! She never really has, no naps and super late bedtime since day 1

We were finally making some headway and getting her to bed for the night by 10pm (a huge improvement over 1am). All of a sudden she is afraid to go to sleep because of bad dreams or monsters (she had trouble with night terrors when she was just a few months old and that lasted until about a year ago)

Now we are back to 1am or later for bedtime, doesn't matter if we get her to nap or not, and if she falls asleep before 9pm she will sleep for a few hours and wake up raring to go. It is frustrating to say the least. My DH and I are completely exhausted and at our wits end.

We went through some similar problems with DD. She had night terrors for a long time. She didn't really have trouble falling asleep during that time, but shortly after she started telling us she was scared and she was coming up with every excuse under the sun to come out of her room. We tried a lot of things, but eventually resorted to bribery and that worked for us. We would make a chart. It started with one night for one tiny reward (a piece of candy the next day, or a sticker, or something else small). Then we extended it to 3 nights in a row for a little bigger item (a Target $1 aisle prize or a My Little Pony blind bag - she loves those things). After a couple months, we were able to move on from the rewards. Every once in a while she will go back to her non-sleeping ways and we will pull out another reward. And sometimes she really does seem scared (thunderstorm, watched something on tv that stuck with her, etc) and in those cases I will stay a little while longer lying down with her to fall asleep and then I will leave her closet light on until I go to bed so she feels better. She also has about 4 other night lights in her room

One other suggestion - have you ever tried just starting bedtime at like 7:30, not letting on that it is any earlier? I remember my pediatrician telling me once with DD when we were having trouble getting her to fall asleep to try earlier. Maybe if she is really overtired it is making it harder, and if you tried earlier she might be able to settle down?

Sorry you are struggling with this. My kids are 2 1/2 and 5 1/2 and I still celebrate when I get to sleep through the night without at least one of them waking up for one reason or another. Lack of sleep is so tough! I hope you can figure something out with your DD very soon!

Thanks for the advice ladies. 😊We had a bedtime routine that started with a bath but she has decided she doesn't like those anymore 😕 We read to her and I will sit and tell her made up stories. It doesn't put her to sleep but it does calm her. We have tried melatonin, unfortunately it had no effect at all. I think we may try just starting bedtime at 8 or so and see what happens. At least she can't tell time yet. 😉 She loves the blind bags too, and Shopkins, so will keep that in mind as well. It helps to know we aren't alone in this. Thanks again!